Urine-soaked mattresses, abuse, beatings, and the use of prescription drugs by residents, some of whom were minors . This is what the Carabinieri found at a center for the disabled in Cuneo, now under police control. These are "abhorrent" images seen by the officers in the investigation into the "Per Mano" social cooperative in Cuneo, which recently led to the arrest of the facility's director, Emanuela Bernardis, and its coordinator, Marilena Cescon. Four people were placed under house arrest and 11 were ordered not to approach the facility. A total of 21 people are under investigation, with four remaining at large. The charges include mistreatment, domestic violence, and kidnapping.
"We were able to observe aberrant recordings," stated Colonel Marco Piras, provincial commander of the Carabinieri. "The residents were in a state of absolute physical and psychological distress," added Chief Prosecutor Onelio Dodero. Bernardis and Cescon, already the subject of a previous investigation for mistreatment related to events that occurred between 2014 and 2019, were indicted in that case, along with ten nurses, healthcare assistants, psychologists, and educators. The force deployed approximately seventy personnel , including the Labor Inspectorate's Nil unit and the NAS (National Anti-Corruption Unit) of Alessandria. According to the prosecutor, there was "an excessive turnover of absolutely unqualified and unsuitable personnel," unlicensed individuals who, in some cases, administered drugs to the children—18 in total, some of them minors—so long as they remained "calm."
In the rooms, mattresses were soaked in urine and not changed, and in the common areas, there was a failure to provide "an adequate canteen service." The cooperative was placed under special administration, with the precautionary seizure of the "Con Noi" group home and the "Stella Alpina" residential center, both of which belong to the "Per Mano" group.
(Unioneonline)
